The Medium

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F paired with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 produces a distinct performance profile in The Medium, a horror title from 2021. Analysis of the measured frames per second (FPS) across three resolutions and four quality presets reveals how this combination handles the game’s fixed-camera scenes and volumetric effects. The data shows a system that is heavily influenced by resolution scaling, with the GPU becoming the primary constraint at higher settings, while the CPU remains robust enough to feed the graphics card at lower resolutions.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data for this combo shows a clear and consistent trend: as resolution increases, average frame rates drop significantly, indicating a GPU-bound workload at higher pixel counts. At 1920x1080, the average FPS across all settings is 114, but this falls to 89.5 at 2560x1440 and further to 84.75 at 3840x2160. This scaling pattern is typical for a high-end graphics card paired with a mid-range processor; the GPU’s workload increases with pixel count, while the CPU’s contribution remains relatively static.

The most dramatic drop occurs between 1080p and 4K at the High preset. At 1920x1080 High, the combo achieves 97 FPS, but at 3840x2160 High, it falls to 64 FPS, a reduction of 34%. This suggests that at 1080p, the system is not fully GPU-limited, as the RTX 5090 has headroom to render more pixels. The gap narrows at the Low preset, where the 1080p score of 154 FPS drops to 134 FPS at 4K, a smaller 13% decline. This indicates that at Low settings, the CPU begins to play a more significant role, capping the maximum frame rate even when the GPU is under less stress.

At the Medium preset, the scaling is more linear. The 1080p average is 128 FPS, dropping to 114 FPS at 1440p (an 11% decline) and then to 90 FPS at 4K (a 21% decline from 1440p). The Ultra preset shows the steepest relative drop, with 77 FPS at 1080p falling to 51 FPS at 4K, a 34% reduction. This suggests that at Ultra, the GPU is the sole limiting factor, and the added pixel count at 4K overwhelms the card’s shading units, despite its massive 32 GB frame buffer. The data indicates that the RTX 5090 is the dominant bottleneck in this pairing at 4K, while the Ryzen 5 7400F’s 6 cores and 12 threads provide sufficient throughput to avoid becoming the primary constraint at lower resolutions.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is a flagship Blackwell 2.0 architecture GPU with a 32 GB GDDR7 memory pool on a 512-bit bus, yielding 1.79 TB/s of bandwidth. Its base clock is 2017 MHz with a boost of 2407 MHz. These specifications directly influence The Medium’s performance, particularly at higher resolutions where the game’s detailed textures and lighting effects demand substantial memory throughput. The 32 GB VRAM is far beyond what this 2021 title requires, meaning memory capacity is never a bottleneck in the measured data; instead, raw compute and memory bandwidth drive the FPS.

The GPU’s benchmark scores corroborate its high-end positioning. Its Passmark G3D score is 39650, and it sits in the 92nd percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 79842. In comparison, its nearest rivals include the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB (avg score 79605, deltaPct 0.3) and the AMD Radeon RX 6850M XT (avg score 78940, deltaPct 1.1). This places the RTX 5090 marginally ahead of these alternatives in synthetic tests, which translates to its ability to push high frame rates in The Medium.

At 4K Ultra, the combo manages only 51 FPS, which is a demanding workload for any GPU. The 104.8 TFLOPS FP32 compute and 1,636.8 GTexel/s texture rate are the likely drivers here, as the game’s volumetric fog and particle effects require heavy shader work. However, the drop from 90 FPS at 4K Medium to 51 FPS at 4K Ultra shows that the Ultra preset’s added effects—likely increased shadow resolution and post-processing—take a significant toll on the GPU’s pixel rate of 423.6 GPixel/s. The data suggests that the RTX 5090 is powerful enough to handle 4K at Medium, but the Ultra preset is reserved for lower resolutions or for users who prioritize visual fidelity over frame rate.

How This Combo Ranks

In the database of tested combinations, this specific pairing of the AMD Ryzen 5 7400F and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 achieves a combo rank of 104 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium. This places it in the top 3.6% of all combinations, indicating that it is a very high-performing setup for this game. The rank reflects the aggregate performance across all measured resolutions and settings, and the data shows that the combo’s strength lies in its ability to maintain playable frame rates even at 4K, which is not a given for many systems.

The Ryzen 5 7400F itself is a 6-core, 12-thread Zen 4 processor with a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost of 4.70 GHz. Its average benchmark score is 32750, placing it in the 83rd percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core i5-14600T (avg score 32707, deltaPct 0.1) and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H (avg score 32812, deltaPct -0.2), showing it is essentially tied with these mid-range parts in synthetic CPU tests. However, in this game, the CPU’s role is secondary to the GPU, as evidenced by the FPS scaling data.

The combo’s rank of 104 is likely boosted by the RTX 5090’s sheer power, but it is not the top rank, suggesting that other combos—perhaps with faster CPUs—can extract slightly higher frame rates in CPU-bound scenarios, such as at 1080p Low. The data shows that at 1080p Low, the combo hits 154 FPS, which is high but not exceptionally so for this GPU, indicating that the 7400F may be capping performance slightly. This is consistent with the CPU’s 83rd percentile ranking, which is good but not elite, and its Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 21765, which is solid for a 6-core part but below what a higher-core-count CPU might achieve. Overall, the combo ranks highly because the GPU dominates the game’s workload, but the CPU prevents it from reaching the absolute top tier.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the combo delivers its highest frame rates. The Low preset averages 154 FPS, which is the maximum measured for this combo. Medium drops to 128 FPS, with a minimum of 109 FPS and a maximum of 148 FPS. High averages 97 FPS, and Ultra averages 77 FPS. This range shows that the game is highly playable at all settings on 1080p, with even the demanding Ultra preset staying above 60 FPS. The 26 FPS difference between Low and Medium, and the 20 FPS difference between Medium and High, indicate that each preset tier adds a consistent load on the GPU.

At 2560x1440, the average FPS across all settings is 89.5. The Low preset achieves 145 FPS, which is only 9 FPS less than at 1080p, showing that the GPU has ample headroom at Low. Medium averages 114 FPS, with a minimum of 97 and a maximum of 131. High drops to 82 FPS, and Ultra falls to 65 FPS. The transition from 1080p to 1440p at Ultra is a 12 FPS drop (from 77 to 65), which is a 16% reduction, slightly less severe than the drop at High (from 97 to 82, a 15% reduction). This suggests that at 1440p, the GPU is still the primary limiter, but the CPU’s 12 threads are sufficient to avoid major frame pacing issues.

At 3840x2160, the combo’s performance becomes more variable. Low averages 134 FPS, which is still very high and only 20 FPS lower than 1080p Low. Medium averages 90 FPS, with a minimum of 76 and a maximum of 103. High averages 64 FPS, and Ultra averages 51 FPS. The gap between Low and Medium at 4K is 44 FPS, which is larger than at 1080p (26 FPS) or 1440p (31 FPS), indicating that the Medium preset’s additional effects are much more demanding at higher pixel counts. The Ultra preset at 4K is the only configuration measured that dips below the 60 FPS threshold, with a 51 FPS average, making it borderline playable for users who prefer smooth motion over maximum fidelity.

Settings Recommendations

Based on the measured FPS data, the optimal preset for this combo depends on the target resolution and the user’s preference for frame rate versus visual quality. At 1920x1080, the Ultra preset’s 77 FPS average is above the 60 FPS standard, and the High preset’s 97 FPS offers a smoother experience. However, the Medium preset at 128 FPS provides a substantial frame rate cushion, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. For users with a 144 Hz display, Medium at 1080p is the best choice, as it delivers 128 FPS on average with a minimum of 109 FPS, ensuring consistent performance.

At 2560x1440, the High preset’s 82 FPS average is acceptable, but the Medium preset’s 114 FPS is a better balance, offering a 39% higher frame rate than High. The Ultra preset at 65 FPS is playable, but it leaves little headroom for demanding scenes, as the minimum FPS is not measured for this preset. The data indicates that Medium is the sweet spot at 1440p, providing 114 FPS with a minimum of 97 FPS, which should keep the game feeling responsive even during heavy visual effects.

At 3840x2160, the choices are more constrained. The Medium preset averages 90 FPS, which is excellent for 4K, but the High preset drops to 64 FPS. Given the measured minimum of 76 FPS for Medium, it is the recommended preset for 4K, as it maintains a comfortable margin above 60 FPS. The Ultra preset’s 51 FPS average is below the playable threshold for most users, and the Low preset’s 134 FPS, while impressive, sacrifices too much visual quality for a horror game that relies on atmosphere. Therefore, the data supports Medium as the best overall preset for this combo, as it delivers over 90 FPS at 4K, 114 FPS at 1440p, and 128 FPS at 1080p, with minimums that never fall below 76 FPS at any resolution.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F is a Zen 4 architecture processor with 6 cores and 12 threads, running at a base clock of 3.70 GHz and a boost of 4.70 GHz. It has a 32 MB shared L3 cache and supports DDR5 memory in a dual-channel configuration, with a memory bandwidth of 83.2 GB/s. In The Medium, the CPU’s role is to manage the game’s AI, physics, and scene transitions, which are not particularly demanding for a 2021 title. The measured FPS data shows that the CPU is not the primary bottleneck at higher resolutions, but it does exert some influence at 1080p Low.

The CPU’s Cinebench R23 multi-core score is 21765, and its single-core score is 3072. These scores are solid for a 6-core part, and they align with the CPU’s 83rd percentile ranking. In comparison to its nearest rivals, the Intel Core i5-14600T has a nearly identical average score (32707 vs 32750), and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H is slightly ahead (32812). This indicates that the 7400F is competitive with other mid-range CPUs, but it is not a flagship processor.

In the game, the CPU’s limitation becomes apparent at 1080p Low, where the combo’s 154 FPS is lower than what the RTX 5090 could theoretically produce if paired with a faster CPU, such as a 16-core part. However, at 4K, the CPU’s 12 threads are more than sufficient, as the GPU is fully saturated. The data shows that the CPU’s boost clock of 4.70 GHz is likely the key factor in maintaining high frame rates at lower resolutions, as single-threaded performance is critical for game logic. The 65W TDP also suggests that the CPU is efficient, but this has no direct impact on the measured FPS. Overall, the Ryzen 5 7400F provides adequate support for the RTX 5090 in The Medium, but it is the weaker link in this pairing, preventing the combo from achieving even higher frame rates at 1080p.

FAQ

Q: What is the average FPS at 4K with Medium settings?

A: The measured average FPS at 3840x2160 with Medium settings is 90 FPS, with a minimum of 76 FPS and a maximum of 103 FPS.

Q: How does the combo rank among all tested pairs in this game?

A: The AMD Ryzen 5 7400F and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 combination ranks 104 out of 2911 tested combos in The Medium, placing it in the top 3.6% of all configurations.

Q: Which preset offers the highest frame rate at 1440p?

A: The Low preset at 2560x1440 achieves the highest average FPS of 145, but the Medium preset is more balanced with 114 FPS and a minimum of 97 FPS.

Q: Is the CPU or GPU the limiting factor at 4K Ultra?

A: At 3840x2160 Ultra, the combo averages 51 FPS, and the data indicates the GPU is the primary bottleneck, as the CPU’s 12 threads are not saturated at this high pixel count.

Q: What is the GPU’s memory bandwidth and size?

A: The RTX 5090 features 32 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 512-bit bus, providing a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s, which is more than sufficient for this game’s 4K textures.

Q: How does the CPU’s benchmark score compare to its nearest rival?

A: The Ryzen 5 7400F has an average benchmark score of 32750, which is 0.1% higher than the Intel Core i5-14600T (32707) and 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (32697).